Author Topic: Refrigerator bread. Second round.  (Read 2656 times)

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Offline cause the rat

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Refrigerator bread. Second round.
« on: March 28, 2022, 11:23:46 pm »
Not sure if it's the same recipe I used before. Gave that book away. The recipe I used this time is the most popular on line right now.
I've made home made bread for years now. With all the differences in texture and flavor. Mostly really good. OK, that's actually personal taste. I know what I like and tend to stick to recipes that contain a few things. Even modifying my favorite recipe. Like most Amish breads it calls for enough sugar to make the bread sweet. I don't like sweet bread so I omit half the sugar. And i like to use a starter. Tried both a 'poolish' and a 'bigga'. Prefer using a poolish starter.  Both a biga and poolish starters use the same amount of yeast and flour. The only difference is the amount of water. A poolish is 1:1 mix of flour and water. Ten oz of water to 10 ounce flour. A biga is closer to 70% flour to 30% water. Both are best after 12 hours of fermentation. Using either will change the flavor of the same recipe. The poolish being more robust. The biga more flowery and mild. Haven't tried a true sour dough starter yet. I've said all that to say this.

Refrigerator bread is awful. I can break it down to explain why. First the over the top amount of water used. 80% water. That's 24 oz of water to 30.5 oz of flour.  Then two table spoons of yeast. Two and a half times more yeast than needed. Then the real flavor killer of this bread. Two table spoons of salt. Five times the amount of salt for this much flour. Salt kills yeast. So you end up with no natural fermentation and lots of salt. The super high amount of yeast is needed because of the over the top amount of salt. The yeast can't travel through the dough causing good fermentation and flavor. Cooking this at the recommended time and temp (350) leaves you with colorless clumpy bread. I've even tried a much higher cooking temp(420). Get a better rise but still no color. Cooking times depend on the size of the bread. In the end the only flavor this bread has is salt.  Doesn't matter how long it's left in the icebox. it's as salty bad from the first day to the end of two weeks

Fixing this will cause an inconsistency of bread flavor. With the first day being the lest flavorful. But it would taste like bread. Reducing the water down to 68% or 20.5 oz to 30.1 oz of flour. Resulting in a thicker dough with longer cooking times. Adding only a teaspoon and a half of yeast and only a teaspoon of salt. A table spoon of sugar can be added to increase browning. The lower yeast will mean you will have to wait a good 12 hours or more to use this dough. This will allow the yeast to travel through the dough giving good fermentation and flavor. The teaspoon of salt will not kill all the yeast but still be enough to flavor the bread. As the dough ages in the refrigerator it will become more fermented. Getting a stronger flavor. However the longer the dough sits in the refrigerator the more yeast will grow and the less starch left for it to eat and stay alive. I'm guessing you would only have a good week to use this dough. So this is what I'm going to try next.

A possible way to have a better consistency of flavor. Wait till your down to the last grapefruit size wad of dough. Add the measurements of flour and water to it. Mix and let stand outside the refrigerator for a good hour. Then refrigerate for a good twelve hours before using. Sour dough?
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